Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority (SLTDA) Chairman Priantha Fernando stated that the country should ‘get its act together’ before November. September is generally a lean month in any given year and arrivals would pick up in November, considered as a peak month for tourist arrivals.
“In September, we generally record the lowest number of monthly arrivals in any given year. Further, Fernando stated that although the SLTDA had funds to launch global tourism promotion campaigns, they had to be extremely careful when utilising those funds in promotional activities. Let’s hope we can overcome the fuel issues by that time, as the fuel issue and negative publicity are the two main issues for us at the moment,” he added
We will have to get our act together in time for the November season
Sri Lanka expects to record around 40,000 tourist arrivals for July, which would indicate a marginal growth from the previous months.
The Sri Lankan Tourism and Leisure Development Authority (SLTDA) has been trying to implement a global tourism promotion campaign for over seven years. The original Cabinet-approved budget for this campaign was around $ 119 million and was later trimmed down to around $ 56 million.